An effective use of leg kicks in a street scenario

Here is a video that was just sent to me by my brother. It shows a effective use of kicking in street scenario, and secondly how in a fight the skilled will generally win. The fighting starts around 6 minutes and 30 seconds. But the whole lead up to the fight is very interesting too.

Only a street scenario in the sense that it technically happened on the street, other than that ti was basically a heavy contact sparring match starring a skilled fighterm and an unskilled one - not very much there to do with self-protection at all.

So, the use of leg kicks here is actually pretty much identical to use of leg kicks in the ring, minus the fact that the other guy had no idea whatsoever what to do about them.

Here is a video that was just sent to me by my brother. It shows a effective use of kicking in street scenario, and secondly how in a fight the skilled will generally win.

Thanks for sharing the video, but I would disagree with both your points.

The first is that this is a consensual "get-go", both parties agreed to fight a duel which completely changes the context - they even stepped away from the crowd to create some space - which subsequently gave Mr Jones the opportunity to use his thigh-kicking to good effect.

Secondly as this was a duel, rather than a non consensual self-defence situation, it is clear that "Phoenix Jones" was well prepared for this type of competition (all be it a rather unpleasant one), being trained for the ring or cage (apologies I don't know him or his reputation). His opponent was clearly outclassed in that regard.

The pre-fight stuff is indeed interesting..Pheonix Jones (and his mates) could have walked away on a number of occasions -so it wasn't really a self-defence or self-protection situation..in fact he made the whole thing a lot worse and if the police hadn't turned up it would have escalated into a self-protection issue for him...

Any time I have I've made a point of driving past a police station and hospital on the way home. As I'm eating dinner and relaxing with my family later, I'm always glad I kept my cool and didn't end up in either place.

Any time I have I've made a point of driving past a police station and hospital on the way home. As I'm eating dinner and relaxing with my family later, I'm always glad I kept my cool and didn't end up in either place.

Absolutely. Appropriate lifestyle and behaviour is far more effective a form of self-protection than any kick or punch.

Not dressing up as a superhero to patrol the streets is probably a good way to avoid attracting certain types too :-)

According to Wikipedia, Phoenix Jones (real name “Benjamin John Francis Fodor”) holds an 11-1-0 record in unsanctioned amateur MMA fights, and a 4-0-0 professional fight record. With that in mind, Phoenix Jones may want to consider a trip across the pond where he could take part in costumed competition :-)

You don't have to walk away for it to be self defence/protection, at least in the UK anyway. You can stay and still claim Self Defence.

That’s true, but it is still a factor to be taken into consideration. This is the guidance given by the UK Crown Prosecution:

Failure to retreat when attacked and when it is possible and safe to do so, is not conclusive evidence that a person was not acting in self defence. It is simply a factor to be taken into account rather than as giving rise to a duty to retreat when deciding whether the degree of force was reasonable in the circumstances (section 76(6) Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008). It is not necessary that the defendant demonstrates by walking away that he does not want to engage in physical violence: (R v Bird 81 Cr App R 110).

So the point is that failure to retreat is not “convulsive evidence” that it is not self-defence … but, crucially, if you did not retreat, when you could have, that will be a factor considered as to whether the force used was necessary and reasonable (i.e. legal) or not.

If the situation in the video had happened in the UK, I would say that it would not come anywhere close to being a valid claim of “self-defence”.

The use of force is only legal is if is BOTH “reasonable” and employed for the purposes of self-defence / prevention of crime. In this case it was a consensual fight. We have a legal right to protect ourselves: we don’t have a right to fight in the street. So it would fail on that count. As to regards the force being “reasonable”, I would say in this case it would still fail because there was ample opportunity to avoid conflict, but combat was instead actively pursued.

In UK law, the above law is simply to ensure that the required legal tests are applied and those making decisions don’t jump to “did not retreat therefore it’s automatically not self-defence”. The need to apply the tests of law to ensure the force used is both legally necessary and reasonable in the circumstance, whether a person retreated or not – when it is “possible and safe to do so” – will still be a factor though in deciding whether force was necessary and reasonable (as per section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008):